Tamil doublespeak

Jayalalithaa really knows how to make her presence felt. As a ‘responsible’ chief minister of Tamil Nadu, she has succeeded in keeping Sri Lankan cricketers out of Chennai under the garb of their security in the event of protesters crying hoarse for Tamil rights venting their anger on them. Since police is a state subject in the Constitution and Jayalalithaa is so sure that she may not be able to control the angry crowds if they try to hurt the Sri Lankans, she has officially wriggled out of her responsibility to be in charge of security in the state.

Apart from being a replay of what had happened when Kamalahasan’s film, “Vishwaroopam”, ran into trouble with some Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu, it smacks of a new brand of politics in which the noise of a wronged CM will be made alongside the clever shirking of responsibility. Well, a state government is obliged to warn anyone in question of potential danger but is it justified in forcing the cancellation of big-ticket events or movie releases without risking being labelled cowardly or inefficient?

Imagine a scenario in which some madcap person (a tribe whose population is growing in our country) publicly criticizes and even threatens (many here find it difficult to do the former without doing the latter) Jayalalithaa ahead of her scheduled visit to Delhi. If the vibes one gets from Poes Garden in Chennai are anything to go by, the Union home minister will be perfectly justified in calling off the Tamil Nadu CM’s trip saying Delhi Police cannot guarantee her safety! Catch Amma taking it in her stride. Most certainly the home minister’s warning will be mocked at in the TN Assembly the very next day amid the CM’s cries of “they-want-to-kill-me”.

The Indian Premier League’decision to abide by Jayalalithaa’s warning means none of the 13 Sri Lankan players signed up by eight teams are featuring in the eight league matches scheduled to be played in Chennai. Perhaps ironically, one of the 13 players is Muttaiah Muralitharan, a Jaffna Tamil married to a Chennai Tamil.

The Sri Lanka Tamil issue is actually made into an almost comical serial episode by Tamil Nadu’s politicians. They brazenly use it for their own short-term political gains. DMK honchos slipped into black shirts days after students, teachers and IT professionals started their city-wide protests on the issue of human rights in Sri Lanka. The grand old man of the DMK, M Karunanidhi, seized the moment as his best opportunity to force the pace and pull the plug on the UPA – something he was waiting to do since the 2G scam saw his aide, A Raja, and daughter Kanimozhi behind bars for months on end before being let off on bail.

Not to be left behind, CM Jayalilithaa raised the security bogey to keep Sri Lankan sportsmen, umpires and officials out of Chennai. Who does she want to protect them from? The fact is most protesters are from the civil society and unless the DMK or AIADMK workers are planning to harm them, there is no danger to the players in a cricket-loving city. Regardless of her specious statements, she has stripped them of their independent identity as cricketers and ended up tarnishing the Sri Lanka players as representatives of the rights abusers back in their country.

The passing of a resolution in the TN Assembly calling for Eelam is a cruel joke. First of all, no state assembly has a say in the external affairs of India, leave alone the division of a neighbouring country. Besides, for hundreds of thousands of Sri Lanka Tamils, who are refugees in their own country and in India, Eelam must be the last thing on their minds. They are in urgent need of resettlement, jobs, healthcare and practical help. Also, stronger language of the UN Human Rights Council’s statement condemning Sri Lanka will not be of much help in solving their day-to-day problems.

In a state where names are taken seriously, if indeed Karuna stands for mercy (for his brethren) and Jaya for victory (of her brethren), they can simply adopt a village each in Jaffna that was devastated in the 2009 war. It is doable as they surely have enough personal funds to do that.

The historical intransigence of Sinhalese politics is too big for President Mahinda Rajapaksa and he will per force take time to go about the business of devolution of powers to Tamils even if he has the will to do it. It would be foolish to forget that the systematic discrimination against Tamils took place despite sane voices in the Sinhalese establishment and international pressure.

The Centre and Tamil Nadu are guilty of acts of commission and omission in 2009 when the war to finish off the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was on. All this noise four years later must be making the Sinhalese establishment chuckle and the Tamils sadder than before

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Ramesh is a journalist working with The Times of India’s Delhi edition. He's worked for several years in English-language newspapers in Bahrain, Dubai and Muscat before returning to India in September 2010. During his stay in the Gulf he has written on Sri Lanka affairs, Middle East politics, the nuclear issue and the environment.

Ramesh is a journalist working with The Times of India’s Delhi edition. He's worked for several years in English-language newspapers in Bahrain, Dubai and. . .